national psychographicartist paul marc joffe - Southern Health

“THE ULTIMATE WISDOM OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE IS TO SAY: “THERE IS THE PICTURE SURFACE, 

NOW THINK – OR RATHER FEEL, INTUIT – WHAT IS BEYOND IT, WHAT THE REALITY MUST BE IF IT LOOKS 

THIS WAY.” SUSAN SONTAG, ON PHOTOGRAPHY 

KIRSTEN RANN 

NATIONAL PSYCHOGRAPHIC ARTIST PAUL MARC JOFFE 

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THE DIRECTNESS OF HIS IMAGES ARE DERIVED OUT OF WHAT HE FEELS IN RESPONSE TO ANY GIVEN MOMENT OR SITUATION OR, AS HE SAYS: “(AT) TIMES 

I MIGHT SEE A SIDEWAYS GLANCE, POSTURE, SYMMETRY AND JUST STEAL IT...” RATHER THAN ATTEMPTING TO CONVEY THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE, 

AS THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHERS DID, EACH OF JOFFE’S WORKS CONTAIN THEIR OWN SUBTEXT, NOT ONLY INDIVIDUALISING THE 

LIVES, CONTEXTS AND MOMENTS HE CAPTURES, BUT WHAT HE EXPERIENCES, PRESENTING US WITH AN EVOCATIVE, THOUGH GENTLE, EVALUATION OF 

A WORLD, AND LIFE, BEYOND HIS OWN. 

The number of photographs that can be taken 

of anything is infinite. And so it is with the 

subject matter covered by Paul Marc Joffe. There 

is a certain familiarity with his images, taken 

while travelling to somewhat unusual holiday 

destinations such as Durban, Mornington Island, 

Laos, Johannesburg, Cape Town, the Israel- 

Syrian border and so forth. These are places 

that reek of social inequality – through poverty, 

various forms of marginalisation, geography, 

age, religious belief and even, in some 

circumstances, racism. But rather than travel to 

bustling cities offering capitalist enterprise or 

lush holiday settings, such places enable Joffe 

to take the images he must, permeating as they 

do with sensitivity and the distant empathy 

characteristic of lens-based observation as he 

invites the viewer to consider what is happening 

in these places on a day-to-day basis. 

A self-taught photographer, beginning 

around the age of 20 whilst studying medicine 

at university, Joffe seems to have an instinct 

for subject matter, composition, colour, line… 

the conventional elements of photography 

emphasised by early 19th Century American 

photographers such as Walker Evans and Robert 

Frank or the Hungarian-French photographer 

Brassai, who, like Joffe, was attracted to 

picturesque depictions of what Sontag describes 

as the “desolation and damages of urban life”. 

But behind Joffe’s aesthetic sensibility seems 

to lie a generous acceptance of the world and all 

that happens in, or on, it. 

At times bleak, there is a poignant and 

sometimes poetic beauty in the reality of the 

lives or places he depicts, a beauty reminiscent 

of the enduring “triumph” of photography that 

Sontag suggests exists in depictions of “the 

humble, the inane, the decrepit.” Like Brassai’s 

photograph Sleeping Tramp in Marseilles 

(1935) or Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange’s 

New Deal Farm Security Administration 

photographs of rural poverty during the 

Depression of the 1920s and ’30s, Joffe’s 

Les Tueurs Melomanes (The Accordionist), 

Mthatha (2008), for example, captures a 

moment on a street corner in a dangerous part 

of Mthatha, the main town in the Eastern Cape 

province of South Africa. Sitting on the outside 

steps of a corner store, a blind accordion player 

is kindly given a cabbage by a stranger, who 

runs away and hides, and whose legs can be 

seen around the corner. 

An interesting point to note here is 

PREVIOUS SPREAD 

Such Soft Hands, Durban, 

2008 

Pigment ink on cotton rag 

160 x 107cm 

FACING PAGE TOP 

Beauty Spot (Right Cheek), 

Quneitra, Israel-Syria border, 

2007 


107 x 71cm 

the framing of Joffe’s works. Unlike the 

aforementioned American photographers, 

many of whom took portraits focusing on the 

desired character or expression on the faces of 

their subjects, Joffe, like Brassai, incorporates 

the composition of the individuals or objects 

within their environment, making the 

surrounds as important as the subject unless 

– as in Beauty Spot (Right Cheek), Quneitra, 

Israel-Syria border (2007) – he focuses on the 

environment itself. While giving his work a 

fine art leaning – rather than straight photodocumentary 

or journalism, where the content 

is more important than the aesthetic – he 

also opens up the possibility for different 

narrative interpretations. 

It is the documentary style favoured 

by Joffe that gives his work the sense of 

familiarity discussed earlier. Animate or 

inanimate, object(s) or person(s) – working, 

sitting, praying, waiting, playing, watching… 

his unpretentious images of streets and 

alleyways, walls, shop fronts, or of the locals 

going about their daily business in the areas 

he wanders around when he’s not being a 

pediatrician are remarkably often taken in 

one shot, though rather than waiting for that 

Cartier Bresson ‘decisive moment’, Joffe, who 

always carries one or several cameras with him 

(preferring the old analogue SLRs and TLRs 

to digital cameras, and not always knowing 

what he has taken until he arrives home and 

the films are developed), so that if and when 

he sees something he can take the photograph 

then and there. 

In an interview in December 2009, 

Joffe informed me that while chance is an 

important element in the way he works, “every 

photograph has a story”. Choosing his subjects 

for what they mean to him when he thinks 

of them, as well as what others may think, 

they are converted into images and alluded 

to in his titles, almost diaristically, including 

the locations in which they were taken, for 

example Untitled Reflection. Arab Contractors 

(rear), Wailing Wall, Jerusalem (2007) within 

which a group of Arab contractors who are 

doing repairs on The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem 

(or the Western Wall, as it is referred to 

there) stand in the background. Contrasted 

against this is a young Jewish man in 

traditional Orthodox dress who seems deep 

in contemplation as he walks across the square 

in front of the Wall and closer to the camera. 

FACING PAGE BOTTOM 

Les Tueurs Melomanes (The 

Accordionist), Mthatha, 2008 


107 x 71cm 

This observation-cum-image simply and 

directly conveys the socio-political difference 

between the two populations living and/or 

working in Jerusalem. It evokes speculation: 

perhaps these young men even have to cross 

the Gaza border patrol to go to work and return 

home each day? 

At times one wonders how it is that Joffe 

does not get shot, beaten up or robbed in some 

of the areas he walks to find his images. As 

he says: “If in a more dangerous area, I tend 

to observe and shift my perspective – I tend to 

interact for a number of hours prior to taking 

any shots – invariably a longer process but 

necessary both for my safety and the power of 

the resultant image.” Such might be the case in 

say, Deal, Approach Two, Green Market Square, 

Cape Town (2008), in which three sets of male 

hands and three hands of cards being dealt in 

a car boot suggest gambling, money, gangs and 

violence, but which was much more likely in 

the situation he put himself into to take Such 

Soft Hands, Durban (2008). During a week’s 

stay in the city, Joffe describes wandering this 

“palpably tense” area where he spotted a group 

of teenage boys. Not looking particularly rough 

in the way they dressed, he found himself 

intrigued by the contrast between their ‘soft 

hands’, the way they moved and a feeling 

that they were disconcerted or anxious about 

something, so he hung around to observe. On 

seeing something silver as they walked, he 

moved towards them and crossed their path in 

an oblique manner while discretely lining up 

the camera at hip height to take another of his 

remarkable single ‘shots’ (no pun intended) 

from their necks down. But as he asserts, most 

of the time he introduces himself and informs 

his potential subjects that he is there to take 

photographs, marvellously gaining their 

respect and/or trust. 

While themes of street and/or gang culture 

are comparable to cinematic genres, works 

such as Saudade, Bus Stop, Baixa Chiado, 

Lisboa (2005) - where two people, perhaps a 

couple, are seen sitting on a bench-seat behind 

(or in front of) a pane of frosted glass in a busstop 

– and Yeshiva (sitting) at Midnight, Tzfat 

(2007) – with four dedicated Orthodox Jewish 

men scattered about a room at midnight in 

a Yeshiva, an institution for the study of the 

Torah and other Rabbinical texts – are isolated 

incidences that are in complete contrast. 

The directness of his images are derived out 



PREVIOUS SPREAD 

Untitled Reflection. Arab 

Contractors (rear), Wailing 

Wall, Jerusalem, 2007 


107 x 71cm 

ABOVE 

Saudade, Bus Stop, Baixa 

Chiado, Lisboa, 2005 


107 x 71cm 

BELOW 

Movement Untitled 

(Second), Imizamo Yethu, 

Cape Town, 2003 


160 x 107cm 

FACING PAGE 

Movement Untitled, 

Mornington Island, 

Queensland, 2004 


107 x 71cm 

of what he feels in response to any given 

moment or situation or, as he says: “(at) 

times I might see a sideways glance, posture, 

symmetry and just steal it...” Rather than 

attempting to convey the universal human 

experience, as the early 20th Century 

American photographers did, each of Joffe’s 

works contain their own subtext, not only 

individualising the lives, contexts and 

moments he captures, but what he experiences, 

presenting us with an evocative, though gentle, 

evaluation of a world, and life, beyond his own. 

A particular example exists in his 

photograph Movement Untitled, Mornington 

Island, Queensland, (2004), taken in a single 

shot during a 10-week medical training 

placement he had in a hospital on the island 

but which was brought to a halt early and 

for which, according to Joffe in a recent 

email, “there were no reasons given – from our 

preceptors, from Mt Isa, from the Queensland 

government – as to why I was evacuated from 

the Island.” And while most of the white 

population had to live in a compound, Joffe’s 

association with an ABC documentary team 

(both as documentary subject and volunteer 

photographer) while he was there enabled 

him to wander outside with his camera in 

the evenings and take photographs and visit 

members of the community. This mingling 

with the locals, including occasions when 

he played music with them, had some rather 

extraordinary outcomes, as he describes how 

the Mornington Island image came about: 

“Mornington Island was a complex and sensitive 

time. The ABC documentary (w2004) and its 

content – Indigenous health, western affluence, 

the thick bridge between youth suicide, abuse, 

alcoholism, 100 years of occupation – continues to 

influence rural and indigenous health training. 

“I was invited to the land of a local 

family. A young man watched me as I enter 

his property. Inside, the Muyinda (Elders) 

talk of the township centre, Gununa, 

beginning as a Presbyterian Mission in 

1914 – an amalgamation of communities from 

neighbouring islands as well as many stolen 

children from the mainland. I learnt of the 

26 island clans, and sitting on the floor next 

to some used cans and a Twisties packet I 

learnt of Thuwatu and the ‘malkiri’ spirit, of 

how to stay safe and how to perish by the 

laws of the land. I learnt of their totem – the 

‘dreaming spirit’ – conceptually and physically 

– understanding how to communicate between 

skin groups. 

“I was given a gift. For the rest of my time on 

this Island I was referred to as ‘Gunjin’ (Wallaby) 

– a sign of trust, and in this case, of humour 

(some would laugh hysterically as I was chased 

and near-savaged by the local dogs on two 

occasions in one day, like a ‘white wallaby’). 

“This photo was on leaving the house. The 

young man was still waiting in the garden. 

Without exchanging words he jumps, contorts, 

striking the air. I have time to capture the dust 

following him. I still do not understand why.” 

With its unusual angle focusing on where 

the subject’s feet should have been rather than 

where they were going, was this young man’s 

move a playful reference to the wallaby, or 

something like a Tom Jones “Think I’m gonna 

dance now!” moment, or perhaps he was drunk, 

or stoned, or was it a display of something 

more menacing? 

Though digital manipulation increasingly 

blurs the lines between fact and fiction, 

Joffe, like many others, continues to seek the 

‘real’ – as in what the human eye sees – and 

rarely ‘touches up’ his photographs unless 

it’s with regards to colour. According to 

Sontag, this kind of ‘real’ is “generally sought 

among the anonymous, the poor, the socially 

defenseless, the aged... people indifferent or 

powerless to the camera’s aggression” (On 

Photography, p.104). While this could be said 

to pertain to Joffe’s work, he is a basically a 

political animal who tries to keep the camera 

as unaggressive, or unobtrusive, as he can to 

allow the situations he comes across to be as 

unaffected, or honest, as possible. As a result, 

it seems his subjects recognise him as an 

intense and focused young man who, though 

loaded with a camera, possesses sensitivity 

towards, and respect for, those he mingles 

amongst. This could be said to be apparent 

in Movement Untitled (Second), Imizamo 

Yethu, Cape Town (2003), where four children 

in a street that he describes as reeking with 

violence, seem to trust that he is harmless and 

continue playing, while some gang members 

hovering in the background watch and leave 

him to his own devices. 

Joffe’s photography presents a way of seeing 

that is precise, intelligent and even scientific, 

both in an anthropological sense – mapping 

human life – and in the sense conveyed in 

an email regarding the title of his exhibition 

(Inferior Oblique, held at Lindberg Contemporary 

Art in Melbourne during November 2009) 

that it “alludes to both the anatomical context 

(the name of a small muscle attached to the 

eye – responsible for part of its movement/ 

rotation – which aids in an appropriate field of 

vision through a camera)”, but which also relates 

to “the subject matter to the artistic ‘direction’” 

of his work. And while his images convey a 

particular vision of the world, or reality, they 

also resemble a scientific collection of samples 

of his experiences that incite the viewer to think, 

or feel, about what is happening both inside and 

outside the frame.

national psychographicartist paul marc joffe - Southern Health

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